The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-03-02
ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA, WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 2 1887

a number of foreigners at Gibraltar who
had been allowed to live there without
permit for many years. All of them
had to submit to the rule requiring a
permit every three months, and all
who were married to a woman that
within the preceding three months had
given birth to child, living or dead,
were expelled.
The interior spectacle Of the city of
Gibralter is lacking in neither gaiety
nor animation. In the evening the
whole population is in the streets.
The Moors with their white Arabian
cloaks, their red vests, their pulled
pantaloons, their barn feet in Turkish
slippers, jostle the redcoats; the tur-
bans mingle with the white cork hats
of the English. In the midst of this
crowd circulate English cavaliers,
Amazons, Andaluslan muleteers with
huge sombreros, and pretty bland
misses with saucy straw hats. The
scene is varied, picturesque and full of
color. But when one lives at Gibralter
the tru est pleasure is in getting out of
it. In the midst of the ramparts that
surround you, batteries, easements,
powder factories, sentinels; with the
continual discharge of cannon signal
ing the opening and closing of the only
gateway by which one communicates
with the rest of the world, the impress
sion of imprisonment becomes so
strong, the need of air space
and liberty so violent, that
one passes this single exit merely
for the sake of passing it and assuring
himself that he is still free. A single
road then presents itself-a road mar
velously kept up by the English and
constantly filled with carriages and
pedestrians, which, under a blazing
sky, goes along the bay of Gibraltar at
the left and the neutral territory at.the
right, and leads you in less than a
| quarter of an hour to the first CUSTOM
house port, the first Spanish village,
Linea. There the spectacle changes.
In place of the English sentinels, so
fresh, so ruddy, and so well fed, here
are the custonl-house officers with their
hollow jaws, and starveling air and
somber and seedy uniforms. For them
every conner is smuggler; but don't
be afraid, they will not treat you badly.
From time immemorial the smuggler
has been the friend of the Spanish tax
gatherer. 1t is he that enables him to
live better than the government, which
doesn't always give him his pay.
In 1874 smuggling flourished in this
part of Spain. The frontier was never
worse guarded, and the customs Off
GERS were never worse paid. Gibraltar,
which, as free port, has at all times
served as depot for the smuggling
done along this part of the coast Of
Spain, overflowed with the merchandise
that forms the object of this inter-
dlcted traffic. The city was filled every
day with caravans of mules loading
with bales of goods. Just before the
gate closed for the night they departed
in single file for Linea. On reaching
the frontier the man at the head of the
line jabbered with the customs officer,
while the rest hurried on. Guns were
fired, and the officers made feint of
opposition, but no blood was shed.
Linea is miserable place of three thou
sand or four thousand inhabitants,
nearly all employed at Gibraltar in
loading and unloading vessels. Each
one on entering Gibraltar in the morn
ing receives pass good for the day,
which he gives up at night. Paris
Figaro.